Tom Gilliam lll, Jefferson County primary candidate, speaks during a public forum at the Jefferson County Courthouse. Thursday February 25, 2010.
Valentino Mauricio/The Enterprise

Tom Gilliam lll, Jefferson County primary candidate, speaks during a public forum at the Jefferson County Courthouse. Thursday February 25, 2010.
Valentino Mauricio/The Enterprise

Photo: Beaumont

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UPDATE: Gillam says accusations a vendetta from truancy case

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A Jefferson County justice of the peace is facing sexual assault allegations in what he claims is a vendetta against him by a defendant in a truancy case.

Tom Gillam III, Justice of the Peace for Precinct 8 in Port Arthur, is being investigated by the district attorney’s office after a 16-year-old girl claimed she performed “both deviate sexual intercourse and sexual intercourse” with Gillam at least twice at his unoccupied rent house in the 2100 block of Thomas Boulevard, according to court documents.

He said he has “faith the American system of justice works” and that after a “thorough investigation of this matter, (he) will be exonerated from these false accusations.”

Gillam said that on the advice of legal counsel, he would make no further statements.

Investigators searched Gillam’s duplex on Thomas Boulevard last month for possible evidence linking him to the teenager involved in the allegation.

The 16-year-old girl told Port Arthur police that during her last meeting with Gillam on April 23, Gillam used a condom that he wrapped in paper towels and threw on the bedroom floor, according to a probable cause affidavit. The girl said she believed the paper towels would still be on the floor if police searched the house. If the condom were still there, police believed it might contain DNA evidence that could corroborate her allegations.

The house was searched April 29 and a form attached to the probable cause affidavit states that investigators recovered a white napkin near a window in the front of the house, swabs from doorknobs, a soiled white napkin from a pile of debris in a front room, swabs from around a window, and a white napkin from the kitchen sink.